Karys Scurro
Biography Karys Scurro was born on Ragnosia but spent most of his life in the Jedi Temple on Korribanos under the tutelage of Jedi Master Vail Morock. Scurro, like his Master, studied the histories of the Sith and the Jedi in the Milky Way as well as those surviving accounts from before The Exodus from the Old Galaxy. He was trained to serve as an advisor to the Jedi High Council on matters concerning the Sith. This post was created after the Sith seat on the High Council was dissolved following the death of Darth Taral. Though Grand Masters maintained friendly relationships with the Sith, none since the time of Darth Taral and Grand Master Con’rathan had extended that friendliness to a voting seat on the Jedi High Council. What nobody knew, least of all the Jedi, was the fact that Jedi Master Karys Scurro, like his Master, Jedi Master Morock, was a fully trained Sith Lord of Lord Azeroth’s Sith Order, a clandestine order founded in 4118 BNE and existing parallel to the Imperial Order of the Sith unknown to anyone. Since Darth Azeroth himself was revived from carbonite hibernation in 14 NE and deemed the Jedi too powerful to attack head-on, the purpose of the hidden Sith Order was to bring down the Jedi from within. Scurro’s Master was a direct descendent of Darth Varnix, whose birth name was Granta Morock, and had searched for decades to locate the perfect individual to carry on the mission set down by their founder, Lord Azeroth. Karys was born on the Korribanosian colony world Ragnosia, which by the time of his birth, was just years away from becoming an independent member of the Korribanosian Empire, as Ziostos had half a century before. His parents suspected his Force-sensitivity at an early age; those of Korribanosian stock, as most residents of the Colonies were, had a much higher occurrence of Force-sensitives than most worlds given their Sith ancestry. His parents preferred that he become a Jedi, not a Sith, but also that he stay within the Korribanosian Empire’s borders; so at the age of seven, he was shipped to Korribanos to train at the Jedi Temple erected during the reign of Emperor Soren Aedar. Once there, he underwent the same training as all Force-sensitive children first entering the word of the Force. Soon he was a Padawan in search of a Master. Though not exceptionally powerful or skilled, something in the Force must have set him apart from the rest in his year because he was almost immediately chosen by Jedi Master Vail Morock. After a number of weeks, Master Morock had gained his trust and his loyalty and eventually revealed to the young boy that he was, in fact, Darth Signus and that he wanted Scurro to be his Sith Apprentice. And so Karys began his dual identity of Jedi Padawan and Sith Apprentice. He was schooled in the ways of the Jedi by day and the Sith arts by night. This extended education actually served to magnify his skills greatly and he was soon eclipsing other Padawans his age. Maintaining this double life was deceptively simple; given Master Morock’s position as Sith Historian, the pair were expected to surround themselves with Sith artifacts on a constant basis. The difficulty had lain in masking their use of the Dark Side, for Korribanos was home to both Jedi and Sith who would be very interested in any new Darsiders they sensed. When Morock needed to teach young Scurro more dynamic Dark Side powers, such as Sith Lightning, which would leave very obvious Dark Side traces behind, he took the boy off-world, often to visit other Sith Orders under the pretext of research. By the time Morock died, Karys was well-placed to assume his Master’s place as the Sith advisor on the Jedi High Council. Though not a formal member himself, he was brought in to discuss matters involving the Sith and the Council deferred to his expertise with little to no debate. The Jedi Grand Master sitting at the time of Scurro’s ascension to the rank of advisor was very publicly anti-Sith. His line of thought was decidedly old fashioned; he viewed the Sith and the Dark Side as perversions of the Force. However, support for the Sith in the galaxy was on the rise and the Darksiders had yet to do anything publicly to warrant action against them and so the Grand Master maintained the Jedi Order’s long-standing peace with the Sith. Scurro saw the close-minded Grand Master as the key to the Jedi’s destruction and quickly got to work. Over the course of several years, he dropped the odd comment here or there about the increase in Sith influence over matters of state in the Galactic Empire, which already had nearly three centuries’ of Sith Emperors. He made certain to add just the right amount of concern to his observations to plant the seeds in the minds of the Grand Master and the rest of the Council. He warned that Darth Lycan, the Galactic Emperor of the time, was a very real potential threat to the Jedi. Lycan, who was so devoutly Sith that he had the seat of government moved from the Imperial Palace to the Sith Temple during his reign, was never openly hostile to Jedi but was known to have little love for them. Karys saw his opportunity and took it as all the pieces fell into place. He revealed to the Council that he had meditated on the matter of the Sith and had experienced disturbing visions of Sith death squads purging the galaxy of Jedi under the direct orders of Emperor Lycan. He warned that these events, though most definitely set in the future, were soon to come. If the Jedi were to survive, they must neutralize the Imperial Sith while they still had the chance. Just to emphasize the dire circumstances, Scurro planted visions in the minds of several Council members during their meditations. When they corroborated his story with findings of their own, the Grand Master authorized immediate action against the Imperial Sith, starting with the Sith Temple on Korribanos. Behind the Scenes Karys Scurro's name is derived from the word chiaroscuro, which is an artistic term relating to the stark contrast between light and dark elements. This name is fitting due to Scurro's dual roles as Jedi Master and Sith Lord. Coincidentally, the name "Scurro" could also be a reference to the word "obscure" meaning "to hide or conceal" which describes his identity as a hidden Sith Lord. Similarly, his Sith name, "Shado", betrays his secretive dual identity. Appearances Category:Jedi Order Category:Azeroth's Sith Order Category:Sith Category:Characters by Josh Walker